The Last Airbender: 10 Worst Things Firelord Ozai Did, Ranked

One of the most interesting things about Avatar: The Last Airbender is the variety of interesting antagonists. While Zuko and Azula might be better written and more complex, Firelord Ozai is the ultimate bad guy in the series that Aang must defeat to save the world.

While Ozai is often more of a looming figure in the background while others do his dirty work, he did some absolutely horrible things in his lifetime. He was clearly an awful person and made for a terrifying villain.

10 Was a horrible father all around

There is no denying that Ozai was a bad parent. While he might have treated Azula better than Zuko, it wasn’t out of love. He thought she was stronger, but she also clearly had to continually prove herself to him to keep him happy. He would have been terrifying to have as a father because he clearly didn’t know how to love anyone, and the things he did to Zuko are so bad they will be featured higher on this list.

9 Made his own people worship him and used propaganda

While the things that Ozai did to the rest of the world are worse, it wasn’t as if he was a good ruler to his own people.

Because the Fire Nation was in a perpetual war for decades, many of them had to be soldiers and to work at factories to make the machines. There was also a lot of propaganda and lies told in the Fire Nation as fans saw when Aang attended a school there in season three.

8 Tried to usurp Iroh after Lu Ten’s death

Ozai was awful to his children and his wife, but he also had no loyalty to his own brother. When Iroh was suffering emotionally after the death of Lu Ten, Ozai saw this as the perfect opportunity to try and take Iroh’s place as next for the throne.

This, of course, backfired in many ways, but it does show that Ozai had no compassion. He didn’t care that he lost his nephew or that his brother was suffering a horrible loss.

7 Made Ursa kill Azulon

It’s made especially clear in the comics that Ursa didn’t love Ozai and that it was a political marriage. So, it’s not like they ever had a good relationship to begin with.

However, the fact that Ozai used Ursa to murder Azulon so he could ascend to the throne is particularly messed up. Ursa did this to save her son, and she was then banished by her husband because of it.

6 Burned Zuko and banished him

Ozai did cruel things to everyone close to him, but he was particularly malicious toward Zuko. He always saw him as weak, and he challenged him to an Agni Kai just for speaking out of turn.

He horribly burned Zuko’s face and then banished him from the kingdom and gave him the impossible task of finding the Avatar. He was an abusive father.

5 Tried to kill Aang

The things that Ozai did are so bad, it’s hard to rank them. While hurting and abusing your own child is high up on the list of awful things, trying to kill someone so that you can take over the entire world is probably worse in terms of net suffering.

Ozai tried to kill Aang when he was a baby so that he could break the Avatar cycle, and he then spent years trying to track Aang and Team Avatar down and end him once and for all.

4 Was going to kill Zuko

Ozai’s crimes against Zuko are very awful and also a long list. He not only burned and banished him, but he was really going to kill him when he was just a child.

After Azulon ordered Ozai to kill his own son in punishment for trying to usurp Iroh, Ozai really didn’t seem to have a huge problem with it. It was only Ursa who wanted to protect Zuko, and he likely would have died without her.

3 Nearly destroyed the Southern Water Tribe

There are so many war crimes that Firelord Ozai committed both during and before the events of the series. One of the worst and most obvious was when he had Fire Nation soldiers nearly destroy the entire Southern Water Tribe.

While some people survived, it would take them a long time to rebuild, and Ozai even tried to wipe out every single water bender there.

2 Waged war on the entire world

Firelord Ozai always wanted power, but he became more and more power-hungry as time went on. He planned to use the extra power that Sozin’s Comet would give him to light the entire world on fire to become the Phoenix King.

He was willing to destroy everything to be able to control the world, and he was drunk on power. He would have killed so many people if Aang hadn’t stopped him.

1 Committed genocide against the Air Nomads

Ozai did so many disgusting and evil things during his time as Firelord, but one of the absolute worst, if not the worst, war crime he committed was wiping out the Air Nomads.

He committed genocide in his efforts to stop the Avatar from being born, and this is such a heinous thing to do it’s hard to comprehend. He pretty much succeeded in wiping them all out except for Aang, and while air benders were created again in Legend of Korra, the culture was wiped out.

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